Along the way, Carol Sartor began cooking large quantities of food for various venues. A speciality for Sartor is sweet and sour meatballs.

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"It's a favorite of mine and many people," she said. "I've probably made thousands of them, having done weddings and that kind of thing."

Recently, she turned 12 pounds of hamburger into 600 meatballs for her daughter's wedding in California.

She discovered the meatball recipe when her daughter, who worked for a lawyer's office, gave her a cookbook, where everybody pitched in with their recipes, including the sweet and sour meatballs, accompanied by sweet and sour sauce.

"I made it a time or two and everybody liked it," Sartor said. "That sort of became a standard for family gatherings or any function I go to or do."

Through the years, she adapted the recipe, adding onions to it and because of quantity, Sartor bakes the meatballs on parchment paper on cookie sheets at 350 degrees for 40 to 55 minutes, depending on the size of the meatball.

"I make them small if it's going to be an appetizer," Sartor said. "I make them a little larger if it's going to be for dinner."

"With that, I put the pineapple juice, bell peppers and onions in it and mix it," Sartor said.

Originally, she began cooking in bulk when she worked as a school secretary and business manager. She incorporated the help of a teacher's aide and a school librarian to help her cook special meals for the staff.

"When our children got to be wedding stage, we decided to band together and do each's others weddings," Sartor said. "So the mother could work until Friday evening to the time of rehearsal and the other two of us would get everything ready the day of the wedding."

She also prepared lunches for about 25 people once a month to bring the staff together. In addition, Sartor made lunches for business managers of the school district once a month. After 42 years, she retired.

But she has not retired from cooking. When Sartor recently moved to Cañon City with her husband, George, she immediately got involved and began to cook for various organizations, including the Royal Gorge Detachment of the Marine Corps League and the Cañon City Elks Lodge No. 610.

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